Reconstruction was supposed to be a happy and healing time for our country. The intention of this era was to rebuild the South and bring the North and South together again. However, as if the United States hadn't seen enough fighting during the Civil War, Reconstruction led to even more chaos. This time, it was the promise of a new life for African Americans in the South. Newly freed blacks anticipated many opportunities they had never dreamed of before, "[yet] this promising dawn did not mark the beginning of a bright new day of educational, social, and political possibilities" (Butchart, 2010, pp. 153-154). . Instead, whites proved themselves incapable of matching up with African Americans on all three of the previously mentioned levels. As a result, as Butchart says, from the days of slavery, through Reconstruction, and into Redemption, African Americans fought for literacy (2012, p. 153). Although African Americans attempted to educate themselves in order to enter “white” society, many whites opposed any form of education for these newly freed people. The idea of ​​white supremacy (Fredrickson, 1981) transformed the Reconstruction era into an attack on a dream (Butchart, 2010, p. 154). Some whites even went so far as to declare “‘if you teach niggers, you are no better than a nigger yourself’” (Butchart, 2010, p. 158). To cover up their racist behaviors, whites claimed that the reason freed people could not acquire an education was because a freed person was either mentally incapable of learning or simply too lazy to strive for an education. The white population knew that African Americans could one day mix among them if they were able to learn. So white people did everything they could to keep black people away from any form of violence. Although "Reconstruction was never an exclusively political affair" (Prince, ????, p. 19), the lack of inclusion in politics kept African Americans from taking full advantage of their new freedom and to enter society. Although this is a false statement, the black race would never have asserted or maintained its right to be a people (Fredrickson, 1981). For when a black man asserted himself, he was sure to be relegated to the lower level to which the white man felt he belonged. The Republicans said that the entire race must be exterminated because it was an obstacle to their party, the white man's party (Fredrickson, 1981). Further, in Fredrickson's work, Reconstruction, in the sense of rebuilding the South and allowing African Americans to join white society, was seen as an attempt to overthrow the white man's rule in his ensemble (1981). Despite the racist attitudes of white men, freed people still possessed and deserved certain rights that were ultimately denied to them (Fredrickson, 1981). It is still true today that races, like individuals, may have differed in their abilities during Reconstruction, but this should not have affected the basic rights of the freed black man. Once again, white Americans knew that, like education, political engagement would have helped freed African Americans enter what they saw as just their society...